From the rules it is unclear what to do with the Nordinn Empire conquest Token in case there are no adjacent colonies at all. Is it then not played at all or is it put on an adjacent unoccupied hex of one's own choice?

If you didn't have any of your Colonies adjacent to this system, you may choose anothers player's adjacent Colony instead and destroy it (return the Colony back to his supply). Put the Nordinn Empire Token onto that system.

This says "you may" and not you must. So it seems to be optional. But what happens to the token if you don't want to destroy another player's colony? Can you save the token or do you have to remove the token from play? Or can you put it on some unoccupied adjacent system? And what if there is no unoccupied adjacent system? Can you then save the token for later or is it removed from play?